Apparition

Chapter 5: Visit
A couple hours after school I went over to Lawren’s house. He would be coming home any minute from work and I decided to surprise him. I’ve been trying to talk to him for the past couple of days but he was always ignoring me so this was the only way I’d get him to listen to me.
I waited in the Shaw family sewing room. Lawren always hung out in this room when he was mad about something so this would be the first place he’d come.
The room was full of everything you’d need to create clothes. There were multiple amounts of thread in metal bins on the floor. There was various amounts of the same colors. I never seen so many different hues of blue in my life.
There were also mannequins wearing new creations by Lawren and his mother. I couldn’t help but smile when I saw all of the hard work they put into this. I walked to the wardrobe and put my hands on the handles of the wardrobe.
“What’re you doing in here?” Lawren asked in disgust.
I jumped and put my hands behind my back. I grinned and waved at him awkwardly. “Hi, Lawren.”
He rolled his eyes and tossed his bag onto the sofa. Then he went over to his desk and continued on the piece he was working on, completely ignoring my presence.
“Are you going to talk to me?” I asked quietly.
He raised his eyebrows then dropped them in response.
I sighed. “Lawren? Please speak to me!”
Lawren stiffened, looked up at me, then his eyes became distant and dilated. “Hello, Natalia. How are you today? Would you like something to drink? How about-”
“Lawren, Lawren, stop!” I interrupted, realizing what I did.
Lawren quickly shut his mouth.
I closed my eyes and slapped my forehead with the palm of my hand.
“Just…” I took in a deep breath. There was no way I was able to tell him anything without controlling him. “How are you, Lawren?” I asked and smiled.
“What’s it to you?” He snapped, suddenly out from under my control.
“It’s everything to me! You’re my best friend.” I was standing on the other side of his desk while he sat leaning back on his chair. His eyebrows pulled together at the center and arms across his chest.
“Then why do you treat me like crap? You were never like this before! Ever since that Nathan came along,” he spat, “you’ve changed. What ever happened to that nice girl I miss so much? I’ve been trying to get used to the new you but it’s hard since I’ve known you my whole life as the nicest girl I knew. But you don’t have to worry about me anymore, Natalia because I’m going to try to get over you and the only solution for me being able to do that is if… we don’t speak to each other anymore.”
“Lawren you don’t know what you’re saying,” I whispered.
“What do you mean I don’t know what I’m saying? Are you using your magic over me again like you always do when you want something from me?”
“Lawren I don’t mean to be rude to you.” I was still whispering.
He jumped out of his chair and slammed his hands on the desk. “Then why do you do it?” He yelled.
“I don’t know.” I shook my head and looked down at the ground. “Lawren, I didn’t come here to argue with you and since that’s all you want to do with me I’ll just go.” I turned around and headed for the door.
“Then why did you come here?” He asked.
I stopped in place and turned around. “This wasn’t how I vision things going,” I said as I walked back to him, “But I’d go to Prom with the both of you if you still wanted me to go with you.”
“What do you mean ‘the both of you’?” He asked.
I was hoping he hadn’t caught onto that. “Nathan and you. I was thinking that the both of you could be my date. Nathan as my boyfriend and you as my best friend. Nathan is fine with it and I just want to know if you are,” I said quickly before he could decline my offer.
“Natalia,” he sighed. He was calm now. “You know Nathan and I don’t get along very well. How do you expect us to share you?”
“Nathan is willing to get along with you. It’s just that you aren’t willing to get along with him.”
“Nathan’s fake.” He said personality-wise.
I glared at him and chuckled. “I was way over my head with this.” I turned around.
“Okay, I’ll go with you!”
I turned back around. “Are you going to make an effort to get along with Nathan for at least that one night?”
“Under one condition,” he said and smiled.
“I won’t kiss you, Lawren. That’s just weird.”
“I didn’t mean that! And why wouldn’t you want to kiss me?” He joked. “When I imagined me going to Prom with you, I imagined you in a certain way.”
“And what way is that?” I asked.
He walked over to the wardrobe and dug all the way at the side. He came out holding a garment bag. “Would you like to do the honors?” He asked and gestured to the zipper.
I was already excited. I had a feeling I knew what was inside the bag. I slowly unzipped the bag because of how delicate the contents of the bag were to me.
The beautiful dress seemed to flow out of the cover when Lawren removed it.
The gown made my heart skip a beat. I covered my mouth and gasped. My eyes widened and I felt like I was going to faint.
Lawren smiled at my reaction.
The dress was even more beautiful than the time I saw it long ago. Even though there was barely any sun out today, the crystal rhinestones still made rainbows on the wall. The dress seemed to belong to a Princess or a Greek goddess. Everything about it was perfect. It was amazing to think that Lawren did this all on his own. I always knew Lawren was making the dress for a special girl but not for me.
“Like it?” He asked.
“Like it? I love it! Not even words can describe how… beautiful this dress is!” I was about to give Lawren a huge hug but he put raised his hands. He hung the dress on the wardrobe knob.
“You may continue,” he said and smiled.
I attacked him with my hug and we both fell to the floor. My chin was resting on his chest and he was looking down at me while we laughed.
“Thank you so much, Lawren!”
“No problem,” he said nonchalantly.
“Do I get to keep it or do I have to return it to you after Prom?”
“The dress is yours.”
I squeezed him harder. “Thank you,” I chanted. “I thought I would never find the perfect dress! You’re the best!”
“Did you really not know that the dress would soon belong to you from the very beginning?” He asked. He stroked my hair with his hand.
“I thought you had a thing for Karina Morissison.”
He laughed. “Nah. That was in Freshman year. But the dress wouldn’t look as good on Karina as it would on you.”
“Awe. Thank you, Lawren.”
We had a long moment of silence as our eyes stayed locked on each other’s.
He smiled subtly and stroked my cheek, removing a piece of stray hair.
I closed my eyes and turned my head away. “I should probably get going now,” I murmured. The thing was that I didn’t actually feel like going anywhere.
“Where’re you going to go?” He murmured back.
“Nathan’s going to be at my house in any minute,” I said quietly.
“Oh right,” he sighed. “You two are still doing that ‘slumber party’ thing?”
“You know I need him with me when I sleep.”
“Have you broken our ‘pure till’ marriage’ promise?”
“Oh goodness! Of course I didn’t break that. I’m not stupid.”
He chuckled. “Just checking.”
We stayed laying there for a little bit longer. This couldn’t be wrong, I told myself. Lawren was just my friend. We’ve known each other since kindergarten so of course we’d be close.
My phone vibrated in my pocket and I jumped up, pulling my phone out. I flipped it open.
“Natalia? Where are you?” Nathan asked. For some reason his voice sounded off and troubled.
“Oh! I’m at Lawren’s. I’ll be home in a couple of minutes.” Probably we was worried that I was gone for to long. After all, the Vanburens were still out looking for us.
“Oh.” His voice went lower in some sort of disappointment. “Well then!” He said happily. “Take your time. I’ll just be hanging out with Nicolette and Jonathon.”
“Okay.”
“See you when you get home. I love you.”
“I love you, too,” I said and smiled.
I shut my phone and shoved it back into my pocket I looked up at Lawren and he rolled his eyes and slumped back down on chair.
“He did it again,” he sighed.
“Did what?” I asked, confused.
“Try to get me jealous. He’s so good at it that he doesn’t even need to be around to do it!”
“What’re you talking about?”
“He told you he love’s you so that you’ll say it back to him. He had to make sure I heard it though.”
“Lawren,” I laughed. “You’re being ridiculous.”
He smirked to himself and looked up at me. “Tell your boyfriend that I’m still in the game.”
“What game?”
“Just tell him. Don’t forget your dress!”
“How could I ever forget this masterpiece?” I asked and took the dress of the knob. I put this dress against me and twirled.
Lawren chuckled.
“See you at school tomorrow!” I sang as I twirled out the door.
“Bye!”
“Thank you for the dress!” I called as I walked down the stairs.
“No problem!” He responded.
“I love it!”
“I knew you would!” He called back.
“Bye!”
“See you later!”
I laughed and closed the door behind me and walked back to my house.
“You look happy,” Nathan said, scrutinizing me as I walked into my house. He walked to me and kissed my lightly on my lips.
“Oh. I didn’t realize I was still smiling,” I said and laughed.
A corner of his mouth went up in an effort to smile.
We went up to my room and laid on my bed. We were staring into the mirror in front of us with the lights off. As I looked into the mirror I noticed that there was something off about Nathan. Was it the way he smiled? The way he spoke to me? The way he moved? I couldn’t put my finger on it but there was definitely something different. Maybe he grew? Oh well. I probably wasn’t a big deal.
I turned over and laid my head on his chest ready to go to sleep. I expected him to put his arm around me but he never did. Maybe he already fell asleep. I sighed and fell into a deep sleep.